After creating what would make up half a layer of plastic bottles for the wave using the brick formation, it became apparent that this method would require even more bottles than the hundreds we had already accumulated; to form the scale of installation we are aiming for. This also meant a lot more washing of bottles than we had expected.
We also had concerns as to the strength of just having plastic layered, if it got windy, rainy, it could easily blow away, sway dangerously, and even fill with water and become too heavy and collapse on itself.
The test we had created by lining the bottles up and joining them together with sellotape caved when lifted, and after being rained on completely came apart, as the glues came unstuck. This confirmed our concerns of the issues that would arise when making the wave this way.
We also bought a tube of No More Nails multipurpose/industrial glue that we had checked would stick on plastic, but again, if we formed the wave out of plastics alone, without the underlying structure, this would require mass amounts of glue, and also consume a lot of time waiting for the glue to dry before adding another layer.
We then tried cutting the base off the bottles and slotting them together where possible with similar sizes and designs. This proved quite effective, as they not only fitted together well, but also had some give to create the curved form in our design.
When trying this we found how well it worked, and even though I had the idea when inserting the plastics together to have them running horizontal, when we discovered how they curved so well it was the obvious choice to string them in rows vertically.
We found some flexible, aluminium wire which we strung through the bottles, and then again at two points by punching holes into the plastic to fortify it.
We achieved this by using a stick of dry bamboo and using it like a giant needle, tying the wire to one end and threading it through the bottles.
This created the desired curve and worked well, this is how we are forming the rest of the top of our wave.
Nice curves wave.
Images are our own.
synthetic nature 